Man charged with selling fentanyl-laced drugs to Mac Miller

Rapper found dead of overdose in Sept. 2018

Mac Miller, a rapper and producer who began his rise in the music industry in his late teens, has died, his attorney David Byrnes tells the Washington Post.

(CNN) - A California man has been arrested for allegedly selling rapper Mac Miller drugs laced with fentanyl days before his death, the US Drug Enforcement Administration announced on Wednesday.

Authorities say 23-year-old Cameron James Pettit and others agreed to sell Miller, whose given name was Malcolm James McCormick, 30 milligram oxycodone pills, as well as cocaine and Xanax, approximately two days before he was found dead in September 2018.

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Pettit, a resident of the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in Los Angeles, allegedly gave Miller counterfeit oxycodone pills that contained fentanyl, "a powerful synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin," according to a DEA press release. Authorities believe Miller snorted those pills prior to his death, the release added.

The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner determined in November 2018 that the 26-year-old rapper died from "mixed drug toxicity." The drugs in Miller's system included fentanyl, cocaine, and ethanol, the coroner found.

"There are two other individuals who allegedly are responsible for supplying Mac Miller with narcotics," Thom Mrozek, director of media relations for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said in a press conference Wednesday.

"They have not been charged at this time," Mrozek added.

Pettit has been charged with one count of distribution of a controlled substance. He is expected to make his initial court appearance on Wednesday afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.

It is not yet clear if Pettit has legal representation.

"Fentanyl disguised as a genuine pharmaceutical is a killer -- which is being proven every single day in the United States," said United States Attorney Nick Hanna. "We are aggressively targeting drug dealers responsible for trafficking illicit fentanyl, which has become the most deadly facet of the opioid epidemic. We are committed to slowing the number of overdose deaths and prosecuting those responsible for spreading this most dangerous opioid."

If convicted on the drug trafficking charge, Pettit would face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.